Multi's Victoria Square in Belfast wins two awards

Multi Development UK has won two awards in one night for its £400 mln (EUR 475 mln) Victoria Square shopping centre scheme in Belfast. Multi was presented with the award for the Best Regeneration Project at the Belfast Awards last Friday.

The ceremony organised by Belfast City Centre Management in the Waterfront Hall showcased the 'brightest and best achievers' in Belfast. The 75,000-m² Victoria Square scheme was deemed to be the project that has made the best overall contribution to the city's regeneration. Commerz Real is the investor and sole owner of the project. The retail centre is managed by Savills.

Also on Friday night, Multi was a winner at the Northern Ireland Property Awards. The event, organised by newspaper Belfast Telegraph and sponsored by L'Estrange & Brett, at the Ramada Hotel in the city. Multi's Victoria Square was named as the Commercial Property Development of the Year. The jury said Victoria Square was deemed to have the most regenerative impact and overall the most positive impact on society.

Paul Sargent, managing mirector, Multi Development UK commented, 'The scheme is far more than the simple sum of its component parts, it is the new social and cultural meeting point of a once divided city With the success of Victoria Square, we are confident we can accomplish the same effect with our other two schemes in Bath and Wolverhampton.'

Since September of this year Multi Development UK has also been awarded Property Developer of the Year at the All Ireland Retail Property Awards; Developer of the Year - Retail and Leisure, at the Estates Gazette Awards; and Property Personality of the Year to Multi's Managing Director, Paul Sargent, at the UTV Business Eye Awards.

The Victoria shopping centre is located on a 1.8 hectare site that links the city centre to the Waterfront and Lagan-side area of the main city in Northern Ireland. Multi ha estimated that 17.2 mln people will visit Victoria Square per year.

The centre opened 75% pre-let with the remaining leases currently under negotiation. The anchor tenant, House of Fraiser invested over EUR 17 mln in its 18,580 m² premises, making this store their largest in the UK and Ireland. The new shopping centre has a total of 98 shops and 18 restaurants on three floors. However, this is not just a retail offering, the scheme also features a leisure element, with an 8-screen Odeon cinema due to open in July and 107 residential apartments, which sold out in two weeks.